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The controversial research and public-spirited work of Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654) - English alchemist, astrologer, physician and free thinker - continues to divide opinions to this day. The College of Physicians despise his healing texts in layman's English that challenge their monopoly on medical knowledge. Monarchists are wary of his outspoken opposition in the Civil War. But commoners and local healers praise his tireless determination to provide the poor directly with pharmaceutical information and treatments. Soon after his death, a secret manuscript is published under Culpeper's name claiming his discovery of aurum potabile, the Philosopher's Stone, the source of the Elixir of Life. The sudden appearance of the most sought-after alchemical Holy Grail on the streets of London raises many questions, principally - did Culpeper really discover the Philosopher's Stone and who now stands to make a fortune from it? Culpeper's friend and former colleague, Zachariah Jenkin, is commissioned by Culpeper's patron to investigate the claims. Unsure who he can trust when everyone seems to have a stake, Zachariah now faces the challenge of discovering the truth, finding the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone and protecting his dead friend's legacy. This enthralling historical fiction by Dr Michael Noble dramatizes the story of Nicholas Culpeper's short yet fruitful life, his studies and his contentious beliefs from the copious writings he left behind.

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9781922314000

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Dr Michael Noble really was born out of his time-he loved cross-stitching and restoring antique writing boxes, and his PhD focuses on the 17th century philosopher, Nicholas Culpepper. He brought balance into his life through a love of bushwalking and gardening, along with his 30-year meditation practice, which sustained him through his final battle with cancer in 2018. Despite being frequently ill, flattened by fatigue and often depressed, he managed to complete an exemplary five degrees, culminating in his ground-breaking PhD in 2017. Dr Noble fought for years to bring the intersex community to the forefront of community awareness. He had strong views on popular misconceptions regarding intersex people, and he aimed to bring a stronger sense of lived realities and diversity, including the movement's core human rights issues of bodily autonomy and self-determination. In the early 2000s, he became a public speaker and he later joined Intersex Human Rights Australia. He remained part of the intersex human rights movement up until his death, contributing to policy debates in South Australia and nationally, and affirming the Darlington Statement in early 2018. Dr Noble was the Intersex Consultant and Communications Officer for the 2017 Gender, Sex and Sexualities Art(i)culations of Violence Committee, where he instigated crucial reforms in the way that the conference approaches notions of gender, sex and sexuality.

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